Accountability Board

WorksafeBC Regulations are intended to assist with providing ways of complying with legislation.

WorksafeBC Regulations (Section 31.5, Procedures) states that:

(a) Written procedures must be established and followed by a fire department or industrial fire brigade to:

(b) Manage and track firefighters at an emergency incident

What this means is that when a fire department, either volunteer, career or a combination, responses to an emergency, the Incident Commander is required to have a written plan as to how the emergency will be mitigated. The Incident Commander is also required to know how many fire fighters are at the emergency scene, what they have been tasked with, and what their location is at all times.

Front

Accountability Boards must be easy to use and easy to understand. This Accountability Board utilizes a personnel accountability tagging system. Each fire fighter has a name tag with a Velcro attached to their helmet. When the fire fighter reports to the Incident Commander, the IC takes the fire fighters tag and places it on the board. The IC is able to write tasks beside the name of the fire fighter indicating what the fire fighter is doing and where the fire fighter is located.

The system is updateable as the writing surface is a white board. The design is well laid out, easy to understand and very user friendly.

Back

The Incident Action Planning section prompts the Incident Commander to complete a size up and 360 walk around, and assist in identifying the issues the Incident Commander is facing. Once the problems have recognized, the board prompts the Incident Commander to indentify strategies (plan) and tactics (actions) to mitigate the emergency. The system is updateable as the writing surface is a white board.

All Accountability Boards include cleaning spray and brush as well as writing instruments.